Scavenging Activity on DPPH Radical of the Enzymatically Obtained Oligosaccharides from Himanthalia elongata

The brown seaweed Himanthalia elongata presents great dietary fibre (DF) content (29-37 g/100 g dm). Alginates, laminarans and the sulphated polysaccharides fucans are the DF main constituents. The scavenging activity on DPPH of the enzymatic extracts obtained by hydrolysis with the food grade enzymes Viscozyme, Ultraflo, Glucanex, Peelzym, Celluclast, Novozym, Promozyme, Mannaway, Shearzyme, after a previous treatment to eliminate fat and pigments, protein (Alcalase and Flavourzyme) and available carbohydrate (AMG and Fungamyl) were measured. The highest antioxidant activity was developed by the enzymatic extract from Novozyme and Peelzym. The extracts from Mannaway and Ultraflo showed high amount of oligosaccharides with notable sulphate content and develop high antioxidant activity. However, Promozyme was one of the enzymes that produces high amount of oligosaccharides with high sulphate content, and presented low antioxidant activity. Thus, other factors such as oligosaccharide type, structure or spatial pattern of sulphates may be involved in the development of antioxidant activity.